About the artist

Thomas Richard Christy Jr. is an American drummer, radio personality and actor, best known for being the former drummer for several heavy metal bands since the early 1990s and his tenure on The Howard Stern Show. Born and raised in Kansas, Christy took an interest in rock and heavy metal music in his youth, and started playing the drums at age ten. He played in several bands while at school.Christy's music career began in 1992 when he joined the Springfield, Missouri group Public Assassin, and also worked as an electrician. In 1996, Christy formed Burning Inside and relocated to Orlando, Florida, where he joined and toured with several popular heavy metal bands until 2004, including Acheron, Death, Control Denied, Iced Earth, and Leash Law.In 2004, Christy took a break from music and relocated to New York City to join The Howard Stern Show. He has written, directed, and acted in several home made independent films and has performed as a stand-up comedian. He returned to music in 2009 when he formed his own metal band, Charred Walls of the Damned.

Albums

Similar Artists

Howard Allan Stern is an American radio and television personality, producer, author, actor, and photographer. He is best known for his radio show The Howard Stern Show, which gained popularity when it was nationally syndicated on terrestrial radio from 1986 to 2005. Stern has broadcast on Sirius XM Radio since 2006.Stern landed his first radio jobs while at Boston University. From 1976 to 1982, Stern developed his on-air personality through morning positions at WRNW in Briarcliff Manor, New York, WCCC in Hartford, Connecticut, WWWW in Detroit, Michigan, and WWDC in Washington, D.C. Stern worked afternoons at WNBC in New York City from 1982 until his firing in 1985. In 1985, he began a 20-year run at WXRK in New York City; his morning show entered syndication in 1986 and aired in 60 markets and attracted 20 million listeners at its peak. Stern won numerous industry awards, including Billboard’s Nationally Syndicated Air Personality of the Year eight consecutive times, and is the first to have the number one morning show in New York City and Los Angeles simultaneously.

Eric Fred Norris is an American radio personality and the longest-tenured staff member of The Howard Stern Show, aside from Stern himself. He first met Howard Stern while working at WCCC-FM, a radio station in Hartford, Connecticut.

Ask Charred Walls Of The Damned drummer, founding member and principal songwriter Richard Christy what he wants to achieve with the band’s third full-length, Creatures Watching Over The Dead, and his answer is as succinct as it gets: “To bring the metal! I want people to listen to this album, bang their head, and have fun.” It’s actually hard to imagine anyone with even the slightest hankering for the hard stuff not having this exact reaction when exposed to the nine tracks comprising the record – for this is heavy, catchy, anthemic and downright killer music to wreck your neck to. At the same time, it stands as one of the most uplifting contributions to the metal canon of 2016, which is both timely and welcome. “I try to be positive with my lyrics because there’s so much negativity in the world when you watch the news right now,” Christy states. “I like to write about my personal experiences, things that inspire me and things that have had a positive impact in my life, and hopefully other people can relate to them and find something that inspires them.“

With five years having elapsed since the quartet dropped Cold Winds On Timeless Days, it’s understandable that fans have been yearning for more, but they have not exactly been sitting around, kicking their heels. Christy, who has previously played with Iced Earth, Death, Control Denied, Burning Inside and Leash Law, played drums on Monte Pittman’s Inverted Grasp Of Balance, wrote music for New York State’s “The Great Jack O’Lantern Blaze” event, and co-wrote a heavy metal comedy Viking rock opera with guitarist Jason Suecof and Titmouse Animation, titled “Majestic Loincloth”. Suecof is of course one of the most in demand producers in contemporary metal, and during CWOTD‘s hiatus he worked with – among others – Death Angel, Deicide, Cryptopsy, Motionless In White and fellow Metal Blade vets Job For A Cowboy and Battlecross. Then there’s legendary bassist Steve DiGiorgio, who made a name for himself in the ranks of Death, Testament, Vintersorg, Dragonlord and a myriad of other great metal bands; in recent years, he has laid down his inimitable style on records from Ephel Duath, Soen, Memorain and others. Which just leaves vocalist Tim “Ripper” Owens, who for a time fronted a little known British band named Judas Priest – before lending his formidable pipes to Iced Earth and Yngwie Malmsteen‘s mighty compositions, touring relentlessly under his own name, starting new band Project Rock and running a restaurant in Akron, Ohio…Needless to say, getting these four guys in one place is something of a Herculean feat, but just because everybody was busy with their own projects, it didn’t mean that the band was absent from their collective consciousness, and Christy spent much of the last five years writing the songs that would comprise Creatures Watching Over The Dead. “When I write for Charred Walls I never really plan anything out. I just start playing riffs and if something sounds really cool, I’ll build a song from there. My only intent is that I want our music to be heavy, melodic, and catchy. Jason and I then get together for pre-production. I’m an average guitar player so he takes my riffs and makes them amazing, and then we spend a lot of time re-arranging and crafting the songs to refine them and make them flow really well. Once we have the songs where we want them, we get together with Tim and Steve to take them to the next level.“

One of the most immediately apparent aspects when listening to Creatures Watching Over The Dead is how damn direct and punchy it is; the majority of the songs clock in under four minutes, containing both the catchiest and most face-destroying music released under the Charred Walls name. “We really wanted it to have that light and shade, and I think this new record brings it all: aggression, power, feeling, technicality,” states Owens. “I think it is exactly what the doctor ordered!” This is abundantly apparent on the likes of “The Soulless” with its blast-beat attack, breakneck thrash and irresistible hooks, plus the stomping beast “Reach Into The Light”, which is equal parts brawny aggression and sublime melody, and has a chorus that would make In Flames jealous. In fact, across the record, the band challenge you to resist punching your fists in the air and hollering your heart out with every chorus unleashed. Having always shined in this department, it’s humbling that they have managed to somehow up their game again, and never once do they fail to hit the stratosphere. “Tim is such an incredible singer, and it’s so fun to build those huge choruses in the studio,” Christy enthuses. “Jason and Tim have such a great ear for harmonies, and to hear the choruses take shape is so exciting. The first cassette that I ever bought was Quiet Riot’s ‘Metal Health’, and I always loved their huge choruses, so that’s definitely an influence on us!” If the choruses of opener “My Eyes”, “Living In The Shadow Of Yesterday” and “Afterlife” are somehow not indelibly carved into your brain after a single exposure, you might need to see a doctor, but this could probably apply to pretty much every track. Likewise, shred maniacs will have plenty to lose their proverbial shit to, with Suecof serving up blistering leads and solos that are string-stranglingly technical, yet never at the expense of melody. Christy asserts that when it comes to metal his favorite leads are those that can be “hummed along to”, but even he is caught off guard by his guitarist sometimes. “He did this whammy bar, harmonic type thing in his lead on ‘The Soulless’ – and I’m not even sure what the hell to call it – and it’s so cool that I about fell on the floor the first time I heard it!” On “Tear Me Down”, Christy also reached out to one of his favorite shredders, Rob Cavestany of Death Angel. “I’ve been a huge Death Angel fan since ‘The Ultra-Violence’, and thanks to Jason, working with Death Angel on their last few albums, we were able to get a brilliant solo from him on that song.” Followers of the band will note that in titling the record, Christy stuck to the established pattern – Charred Walls Of The Damned; Cold Winds On Timeless Days; Creatures Watching Over The Dead – and when it came to lyrics, he once again wrote from the heart. While drawing from his personal experiences, Christy still covers a breadth of subject matter, adding to the overall scope and dynamic of the record. With “Lies”, he flies the flag for heavy metal, recounting an experience from his youth in which his friends took acid and immediately abandoned their passion for metal in favor of fawning over The Grateful Dead, which bummed him out, but, Christy notes: “the positive aspect of it was that it kept me from ever doing drugs because I never wanted to stop listening to heavy metal!” On “My Eyes”, he poignantly speaks of dreaming of loved ones who have passed and the joy entailed in encountering them, juxtaposed with the sadness upon awaking to the realization that they are gone. “The Soulless” speaks to a subject he touched upon with “Zerospan” on Cold Winds On Timeless Days. “It’s about how in New York City, where I live, everybody is constantly staring at their cell phones and not actually living life. They’re living inside this little electronic box, and it focuses on how I love to not be around my phone and live like in the good old days, before cell phones, where people walked around appreciating life and enjoying their surroundings.“

When it was time to lay the songs down, the members convened at Suecof’s Audiohammer Studio, outside Orlando, FL, and the subsequent sessions might well have been the smoothest in the history of the metalverse. With everyone more than prepared, after nailing a drum tone that sounds “so natural and crushing”, Christy laid down all the drum parts in a single day, and DiGiorgio “crushed it as usual” over the space of two days, delivering an incredible performance which really shines through on every song. Suecof infused Christy’s riffs with character, dynamics and sheer power as he tracked them, and then it was down to Owens, who delivered one of his finest performances – made all the more impressive by how quickly he worked. “Tim Owens is a machine in the studio. He does so much touring that his voice is super strong and he belted out this whole album – along with harmonies – in just four days. I don’t know how he does it without blowing his voice out!” Christy marvels. “He’s the exact kind of metal singer that I always dreamed of being in a band with since I was a kid listening to Dio and Iron Maiden. There’s a scream that Tim does in ‘My Eyes’ that is going to totally blow people away. It sounds like David Vincent starts the scream and Ian Gillan ends it, it’s awesome!“

It’s understandable that the four guys are seriously proud of the finished product. Once released, Christy has a simple ambition for the record, wanting “people to crank it up while they’re drinking their favorite craft beer and cleaning their guinea pig’s cage – which I do once a week – or mowing the lawn!” Though the schedules of the individual members have prohibited them from touring in support of their previous records, they have managed to play a few shows, including Metallica’s Orion Fest in Atlantic City, NJ, and if the fates permit it they would certainly like the opportunity to blast the tracks from Creatures Watching Over The Dead at heaving crowds. Moreover, if Christy has anything to say about it, five years will not be allowed to pass before we’re treated to the fourth Charred Walls Of The Damned album. “I have a lot of songs left over from this album’s writing session that I think are really good, and I’m already writing more material for the next one, so hopefully we’ll have another big slab of metal for the fans soon after we release this one!”

Death was an American death metal band from Orlando, Florida, founded in 1983 by guitarist and vocalist Chuck Schuldiner. Death is considered to be among the most influential bands in heavy metal and a pioneering force in the metal subgenre death metal. Their debut album, Scream Bloody Gore, has been widely regarded as the first death metal record, while the band's driving force, Chuck Schuldiner, is acknowledged as the originator of extreme metal. Death had a revolving lineup, with Schuldiner being the sole consistent member. The group's style also progressed, from the raw sound on its early albums to a more sophisticated one in its later stage. The band ceased to exist after Schuldiner died of complications from glioma and pneumonia in December 2001, but remains an enduring influence on metal.

Charles Michael "Chuck" Schuldiner was an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He founded the pioneering band Death in 1983. Schuldiner is often referred to as "The Godfather of death metal", and his obituary in the January 5, 2002 issue of UK's Kerrang! magazine said that "Chuck Schuldiner was one of the most significant figures in the history of metal." Schuldiner himself was modest about his part in the history of death metal, noting, "I don't think I should take the credits for this death metal stuff. I'm just a guy from a band, and I think Death is a metal band." Schuldiner was ranked No. 10 in Joel McIver's book The 100 Greatest Metal Guitarists in 2009 and No. 20 in March 2004 Guitar World's "The 100 Greatest Metal Guitarists". Schuldiner founded the publishing company Mutilation Music in 1987, affiliated with performance rights organization BMI.

Steve Di Giorgio is an American musician of Italian descent.Di Giorgio has played bass guitar in heavy metal and death metal bands such as Death, Autopsy, Control Denied, Ephel Duath, Obscura, Artension, Faust, Memorain, Painmuseum, Suicide Shift, Soen, Vintersorg, Dragonlord, Iced Earth, Sebastian Bach, Obituary, and is a founding member of Sadus. He is a founding member of the jazz band Dark Hall and is currently the bass player for Futures End, Synesis Absorption, Mythodea, Charred Walls of the Damned, Anatomy of I and Testament. Along with his bass duties in Sadus he also plays keyboards.Within his genre, Di Giorgio is respected for his highly technical playing skills. He is also widely credited with being the first bassist to bring fretless bass playing into the heavy/extreme metal genre. Di Giorgio has stated that his main influences as a bassist are Geddy Lee, Chris Squire, Geezer Butler, Steve Harris, Stanley Clarke, Jaco Pastorius, Billy Sheehan, Dave Pegg and Charles Meeks.Di Giorgio is 6' 6 tall.

John Edward Melendez, commonly known as "Stuttering John," is an American television writer, and radio personality. Prior to his work on television as a writer and announcer, Melendez was a regular on-air personality on The Howard Stern Show. He became known for asking impertinent questions of celebrities on the red carpet and at press conferences with his stuttering.

Eugene Victor Hoglan II is an American drummer, acclaimed for his creativity in drum arrangements, including use of abstract devices for percussion effects and his trademark lengthy double-kick drum rhythms. His highly technical playing is extremely accurate at very high and challenging tempos, earning him the nicknames "The Atomic Clock" and "Human Drum Machine."He is best known for his work with Dark Angel, Death, Strapping Young Lad, Devin Townsend, Fear Factory, Opeth, Unearth, Dethklok and Testament. Hoglan completed work on Dethklok's fourth album The Doomstar Requiem, which was released in October 2013. He released the highly successful Gene Hoglan: The Atomic Clock DVD, and rejoined Testament to record the drum tracks for their tenth album, Dark Roots of Earth, released in July 2012.Hoglan was featured on the cover of Modern Drummer magazine November 2010. He also won Terrorizer magazine's Reader's Poll for Best Drummer 2010, and Modern Drummer magazine nominated Hoglan for Best Metal Drummer, and Best Recorded Performance on their 2011 ballot. He was nominated for Best Drummer in Revolver magazine's 2010 Reader's Poll.

Iced Earth is an American heavy metal band from Tampa, Florida. It was formed in 1984 under the name The Rose, then Purgatory by guitarist and main songwriter Jon Schaffer and original drummer Greg Seymour. Iced Earth released their debut album in 1990 and have since released eleven studio albums, four EPs, three compilations, three box sets, three live albums, eleven music videos and one cover album.After releasing their first two studio albums in 1990 and 1991, respectively, Iced Earth took a three-year layoff from 1992 to 1995, after which the band returned with new lead vocalist Matt Barlow. Iced Earth went on to release four studio albums with Barlow between 1995 and 2001, respectively; 1995's Burnt Offerings, 1996's The Dark Saga, 1998's Something Wicked This Way Comes and 2001's Horror Show.After Horror Show, Barlow quit the band and joined the police force, while Iced Earth continued on with Tim "Ripper" Owens, of Judas Priest fame, on vocals. With Owens, the band released two studio albums. In late 2007, Matt Barlow rejoined the band. Iced Earth recorded the album The Crucible of Man with Barlow in 2008. In 2011, Barlow left the band again.

The Wack Pack is the name given to an assortment of personalities heard throughout the history of The Howard Stern Show, American entertainment talk radio show. As a parody of the Rat Pack or Brat Pack, they are considered part of what the radio show became notable for. Members tend to be unusual in some way such as being blatantly racist, mentally disabled, having a comical appearance, voice or ability. As of 2016, twenty four living individuals are designated "Wack Packers". Not every regular guest on or caller to the show is considered a member, nor are any of the show's staff members; Stern has stated that Wack Packers are not defined by having any disability or peculiarity, but by their inability to understand why they are funny.Through their appearances on the radio show, some Wack Packers have gained notoriety for personal appearances around the country and occasionally, played roles in films and television programs.

Sean Reinert is the drummer of Æon Spoke. He was also the drummer and founding member of Cynic, until leaving the band in September 2015. He is also regarded as one of the most influential metal drummers of all time due to his album recordings from the early nineties that blew open the doors to the metal/jazz fusion style. He credits such drummers as Dave Miranda, John Bonham, Dave Weckl, Gary Husband and Vinnie Colaiuta as being an important influence in his formative years.In 1991, Reinert and Paul Masvidal joined the band Death to record the Human album. This album is seen by many as the start of the technical death metal genre. After touring with Death, he returned to Cynic.1993 saw the release of Focus on the Roadrunner Records label. Roadrunner re-released it in 2005 as a special collector's edition due to high demand. After Cynic's disbandment Reinert had been a member of the Cynic spin-off band Portal which released a demo but eventually disbanded. Having relocated to Los Angeles, Reinert continued working with music by writing and performing for television shows and motion pictures.

Claudia Lee Black is an Australian actress and voice actress, known for her portrayals of Aeryn Sun in the science fiction series Farscape and Vala Mal Doran in the science fiction series Stargate SG-1, as well as Sharon "Shazza" Montgomery in the film Pitch Black. She has also had several prominent roles in video games, such as Chloe Frazer in the Uncharted series, the witch Morrigan in Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age: Inquisition, Daro'Xen in Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3, and squadmate Samantha Byrne in Gears of War 3. She also starred as Doctor Sabine Lommers in the miniseries Containment.